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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #373433
Research Project: Integrated Orchard Management and Automation for Deciduous Tree Fruit Crops (BRIDGE PROJECT)

Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection

Title: The influence of marking methods on mobility, survivorship and field recovery of Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) adults and nymphs

Author
item KIRKPATRICK, DANIELLE - Trece, Inc
item RICE, KEVIN - University Of Missouri
item IBRAHIM, AYA - University Of Udine
item FLEISCHER, SHELBY - Pennsylvania State University
item TOOKER, JOHN - Pennsylvania State University
item Tabb, Amy
item MEDEIROS, HENRY - Marquette University
item Morrison, William - Rob
item Leskey, Tracy

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/17/2020
Publication Date: 8/29/2020
Citation: Kirkpatrick, D.M., Rice, K.B., Ibrahim, A., Fleischer, S.J., Tooker, J.F., Tabb, A., Medeiros, H., Morrison III, W.R., Leskey, T.C. 2020. The influence of marking methods on mobility, survivorship and field recovery of Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) adults and nymphs. Environmental Entomology. 49(5):1026-1031. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvaa095.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvaa095

Interpretive Summary: The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is a serious invasive pest in the USA and Europe. To understand more about its movement patterns in agricultural systems, it is important to be able to track them effectively. Here, we evaluated two methods for marking BMSB to enable accurate tracking in the environment. These included fluorescent dusts applied in a water solution to the insect’s entire body, and neon markers used to simply apply visible dots on their backs. While both were effective, the fluorescent dust solution was less expensive and much faster, indicating this is the best approach for marking large numbers of BMSB for tracking.

Technical Abstract: Halyomorpha halys (Stål), the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive and highly polyphagous insect that has caused serious economic injury to specialty and row crops in the USA and Europe. Here, we evaluated the effects of marking adult and nymphal H. halys with four different colors of fluorescent powder (Blaze Orange, Corona Pink, Horizon Blue, and Signal Green) on mobility and survivorship in laboratory bioassays. Adults and nymphs were marked using liquid fluorescent powder solutions and allowed to dry prior to bioassay. The presence of the marking solution had no significant effects on adult or nymphal mobility, adult survivorship, nymphal development, or adult flight capacity. We also evaluated the persistence of neon marker applied to the pronotum of H. halys adults and found this technique remained detectable for two weeks under field conditions. Although both marking techniques are inexpensive, persist for = one week and do not affect mortality, the neon marker method is more time consuming, taking ~12 times longer to mark 50 adult H. halys compared with the liquid fluorescent powders. Thus, we would recommend using fluorescent powders for large-scale mark-release-recapture studies.